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I work on the series and was at Sao Paulo. We were there for a week with beautiful weather everyday except one with light rain. I swear though the second we were ready to start, it just started to monsoon. It's unfortunate because that track could be really great. It was however, so much better than last year in terms of infrastructure and setup that I'm willing to go back.

If the IRL is smart, they will do as many races as possible in Brazil. The fan base is huge and they have deep pockets.

If the IRL wants to be another open wheel series that Americans don't give a crap about (a la F-1), they'll keep adding races in far-flung venues and field races without a viable American threat.

The luster has really come off the Indy 500 the last 15 years and I seriously suspect starting grids with a minority of American drivers play a part.

Obviously the separation of Indy into IRL and CART caused the most damage. It split the teams and the talent. Then when they put them back together, they opted for the extremely ugly and extremely old IRL chassis.

Hopefully 2012 with the new car, different aero kits and Chevrolet back in the mix, it will get more attention.

Not sure if they will have enough American drivers though, as the few decent open wheel Americans like Alexander Rossi are already in Europe shooting for F1.

F1 will never be the factor that NASCR is because of the venue ;purely. IRL should return to ovals :IMO.Road racing has limited appeal in america really has many series have died over the years not just F1. But one F1 race can make it is US markets if they can keep the racing in the formula;and forget the parade thing and not rely on the cars being the attraction. Seems they are starting to do that this year finally.There has to be some racing to have viewers record and watch F1 and any other racing with the varied schedule worldwide.Racing matters and snob appeal doesn't go far in US.

F1 will never be the factor that NASCR is because of the venue ;purely. IRL should return to ovals :IMO.Road racing has limited appeal in america really has many series have died over the years not just F1. But one F1 race can make it is US markets if they can keep the racing in the formula;and forget the parade thing and not rely on the cars being the attraction. Seems they are starting to do that this year finally.There has to be some racing to have viewers record and watch F1 and any other racing with the varied schedule worldwide.Racing matters and snob appeal doesn't go far in US.

a.) IRL was dropped. Its IndyCar now.

b.) The all oval experiment failed miserably with open wheel. When CART was in its heyday, it was a healthy mix of oval/road/street. That series was broken at the top, not on the track. People just don't show up for the ovals these days for IndyCar. Why? I dunno.

c.) Don't understand why there's a "snob" appeal when it comes to road racing. NASCAR's road races are some of their best races start to finish and there's nothing snobbish about that. If you've seen F1 this year or have been watching MotoGP for years, you know that road racing can be just as exciting as anything.

d.) With any series its the drivers/teams that make the series popular. CART had them in the 80s/first half of the 90s. NASCAR has the names that people know whether they are hacks or not. F1 has competitive names. MotoGP has competitive names. IndyCar has to get back to that and get the young talent and their fanbases to go with it. Not to mention the name of manufacturers.

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